A little bit of crafting here, some fun projects with kids there, and the barest scrap of cleaning tips thrown in for good measure. Enjoy reading, but have even more fun doing - this blog is all about showing you how-to...be homemade!

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Sachet, Sachet, Sachet

I'm easing myself into Valentine's day crafts. The house looks bare without our Christmas decorations, but I'm just not ready to put red hearts all over the place. However, I made these sachets today and pink hearts snuck onto a few of them!

I'll admit, I had to buy a few (inexpensive!) supplies to make these. I have been wanting to make more burlap "ornaments" (or "fun things to hang about" if it's not Christmas-time), but I wanted them to be scented, since one of the recipients of my burlap star ornaments desperately wanted hers to smell good! Luckily, making your own sachet filling is easy and cheap :)I found a recipethat just needed a little bit of tweaking. First, I chose corn cob pet bedding. The site said you could also use all-natural clay kitty litter, but I just don't know if I could ever get over the fact that it was kitty litter. Like, I think I would always smell the faint odor of a cat box...so, corn cobs it is! I easily found the corn cob pet bedding at Meijer in the pet aisle, and it was $8 for a large bag. I decided to make 4 cup batches (the recipe called for 8 cup batches, but I thought if I disliked a scent, 8 cups would be a lot to give away!). I decided on scented oil from the candle aisle (also at Meijer) for the variety of scents and the cost - only $1.99 a bottle! I really wanted lavendar essential oil, but that stuff cost over $10 for a smaller bottle - yikes! Maybe when I sell a bunch of these at my shop I can justify the expense. For now, I got four of the cheaper scents. Here's what I started with:

A large-ish bag of corn cob pet bedding

4 bottles of scented oil

Citrus Ginger

Clean Linen

Tropical Citrus Tango

Jasmine White Gardenia

4 gallon baggies, labeled with names of oil

I measured everything over the kitchen sink - it was a rare moment for me - I usually think of that after I spill highly-concentrated scented oil on my porous brick floor...Anyway, I put 4 cups of corn cob bedding in each bag, drizzled one tablespoon of scented oil over it, then sealed the bag and shook it like crazy.

Then, I left the bags for a couple days. The recipe said I should leave them for two weeks, but I don't have that kind of planning going on in my life! I did go in and shake them a couple times a day. It didn't seem like any oily residue was really getting left on the inside of the baggies, so I thought the filler was probably OK to use. I made some darling burlap fabric sachets - it was really easy!

Just draw a shape you like on some recycled cardboard (those trusty old cereal boxes!).

Cut it out and tape the edge of the shape back together, and center on your sachet. Then, dab the paint color of your choice into the shape and let dry.

You may not have quite the success I did, as I was being inspired by my design assistant...

I paint, you paint, we all paint, right? If you go easy on the paint, drying only takes 20-30 minutes. My sachets are 5" square (mostly, there were some that were a tad smaller!), and I put a heaping 1/4 cup of filler in each one.

I am VERY excited with how well they turned out - too bad you don't have a scratch and sniff monitor, because they all smell just delightful! I even made a couple of plain ones from the scraps and hung them up in my linen closet - yum! Don't you want a few, too? Stop by my shop & get yourself some sweet smelling sachets.

18 comments:

I really like them! They seem pretty simple to make and they add a lot of character. I don't want a bunch of red or pink lovey dovey stuff all over my home right now...I'm enjoying the less cluttered look after the Christmas stuff came down. I DO have some burlap hanging about ;)

One of my New Year's resolutions it to work ahead more for the holidays in 2012. It is so important for posting purposes as well as for personal stress management. :) Thank you for the inspiration (and for linking up to Freshmen Friday)! :)

Oooo Burlap!! I'm in love with this project and want to make them asap!! I just need to get the scented filler and then I can!!Thank you so much for sharing and linking up to Lisa's Linky List!!~Lisa @ Lisa's Craft Blog

I love this idea~ My kids and I are making them this weekend!I am linking this from my blog featuring awesome holiday gift ideas... hope you don't mind I am using your photos for the links. Please let me know if you want me to remove... I will most definitely...!Happy holidays.-Allison